Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations. Speaking for myself and for a number of other representatives across the Oireachtas, some of us have an issue with this proliferation of approved housing bodies. What is their purpose? They started out as as the provision of specialised knowledge or connection between groups of people, be they the elderly or the disabled or similar. Alone, for example, was known to provide specialised knowledge in the area of older people. That now seems to be gone, however, and housing bodies are popping up all over the place without any areas of specialisation. I do not really see why approved housing bodies have the degree of involvement in housing that they do. They are now being encouraged, both by the Government and by local authority managers. This is probably for ideological reasons because the Government does not want the local councils to provide housing on the scale that they once did. There are many different reasons for this.

Sometimes there are certainly problems with council housing. People are sometimes put into large-scale areas with no transport facilities, for example. We have all seen that happen over the years. I was a councillor myself for 11 years. Fingal County Council, for example, does not seem to run any housing anymore and this is largely ceded instead to housing bodies. I know that Clúid is involved in an upcoming project, as is Respond! Why is this case?

There is a difficulty here for the tenant. Many people on the housing list do not realise that when they get a house from a housing body they are not in fact council tenants. The problem with this is that tenants do not have the same level of representation from councillors and public representatives to help them address problems. It was previously the case that when, for example, windows needed to be replaced, councillors would lobby council management to get the funds from the Government to do this. We do not have that facility with the approved housing bodies. There is probably a good reason for this, as the bodies are not sufficiently funded or resourced.

There is also the issue of rent. If people get into massive arrears for some reason, the councils have always been willing to sit down and work out a programme to deal with this.

Then there are issues like pyrite. I have found it very difficult to set up a meeting on the pyrite problem in the Parnell Estate in Mulhuddart. Respond! is in charge of that estate. If the council were running that estate, not only would the problem be fixed by now, but they would also have sat down to have a meeting with public representatives like myself and with tenants. This has not happened. The approved housing bodies have to answer for that. People are contacting us as public representatives thinking that we can assist them but we cannot. The point I am raising is that we do not have the same ability to intervene with approved housing bodies when problems arise.

Another issue I have is a financial one. One of the reasons why approved housing bodies are being used more is the desperate search by the Government and like-minded parties to find off-balance sheet models and special purpose vehicles. So it is then, that local authorities are no longer to be provided with money. We have loads of money in this country and we could solve this housing problem. The funds are there.

The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund has money to offer, interest free. In my view, this is a political decision. I am sure some people began their involvement with approved housing bodies because they wanted to get specialised housing. However, I do not see how it can be argued now that the latter remains the case. I do not think that approved housing bodies can solve the housing problem. They are being looked to far too much in that regard. They are being given local authority lands. I do not know the nature of the transactions with the councils or whether the approved housing bodies pay for the land involved. From what I see in my constituency, the approved housing bodies are being given all the council lands. They are also being given responsibility for running housing estates. From the point of view of public representatives, this is a major problem. I would like the witnesses to address these issues.